


Baby Got Bar Back

by shrift



Series: Yuletide Fanworks [25]
Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: M/M, Therapy, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21894073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrift/pseuds/shrift
Summary: A few weeks after Pree had taken back the Royale by force, he turned around one night to see the bastard he’d stabbed staring back at him from across the bar.
Relationships: Gared/Pree (Killjoys)
Series: Yuletide Fanworks [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/104180
Comments: 18
Kudos: 47
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Baby Got Bar Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LJC](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJC/gifts).



> Written as a Yuletide Treat. Set during Seasons 2 & 3.
> 
> Beta by [Nestra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nestra).

A few weeks after Pree had taken back the Royale by force, he turned around one night to see the bastard he’d stabbed staring back at him from across the bar.

“Well, well, look at what the cat dragged in. Are you going to behave this time, baby doll?” Pree asked.

“Maybe. Maybe not,” he replied mulishly.

Pree pulled his shotgun from under the bartop. “Get the hells out of my bar until you make up your mind, then.”

He went, and then a few days later, Pree had to chase him off again. And then again. He thought about putting up a sign banning thieves, but that would mean Pree and most of his clientele wouldn’t be allowed in, and he wasn’t that much of a hypocrite.

Eventually, on a day when Pree was feeling magnanimous because his makeup was on point, and because the bastard was looking a lot less surly and little more contrite, Pree graciously allowed him to sit at the bar. 

There weren’t a lot of watering holes in Westerley, and he wasn’t the type to deny people their pleasures for long.

“How are we feeling today, pumpkin?” Pree asked.

He shrugged. “Can I get a drink?”

Pree raised his eyebrow very high. “Depends. What are you going to do for it?”

The bastard squinted. “Pay for it?”

It was too cute, and it made Pree smile, which in turn made the big guy duck his head and shift from side to side on the barstool. Pree got him his drink and let him be for a while, just to see what he would do.

Mostly he was quiet and kept to himself, so Pree decided to let him stick around until he gave Pree a reason to make him go.

That went on for a while until Pree turned around one night to find the big guy leaning over the bartop with an intent look on his face, his biceps bulging. He was too close, and Pree didn’t like it when it wasn’t invited.

“What do you want?” Pree asked, reaching for the knife he’d been using to cut fruit for a cocktail with one hand and pocketing the Joy he’d left behind the bartop with the other.

The burly man stared up at him like a child who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, shifting back nervously and making the stool squeak. “Well…”

Pree flipped his knife and stepped closer to his shotgun. “Spit it out, sweetheart. I haven’t got all day.”

“I could really use some work,” burly man said. “I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?” Pree asked with a lascivious arch of his eyebrow.

Burly man shrugged. “Your sexers already told me that you don’t have any extra space upstairs.”

“Hmm,” Pree said, and made a note to review some digital footage to see when and how that conversation went down.

“Please?”

“What’s your name again?”

“Gared.”

“Gared, I’ll give you a chance under one condition: you can get angry all you want, but you only do something about it at my bar if and when I tell you to.”

Gared caught his hand in between his giant paws, and Pree nearly stabbed him again before Gared could say, “Thank you. You won’t regret this.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Pree said.

* * *

Pree set Gared to handyman work, at first. Shootouts and all-out brawls weren’t exactly common, but they did occur with sufficient frequency that Pree had decorated the bar with things that were stylish, sturdy, and resistant to bullets.

Gared seemed happy enough at first to be employed, buzzing around like a bee fixing all the things, from the somewhat broken to the mostly destroyed. Pree promoted him to bar back when there was nothing left to fix and Gared hadn't stolen anything yet, and he was under the impression that everything was fine until he walked into the storage room to find Gared kicking the shit out of a crate that still had some Hokk in it.

“Whoa, whoa! Simmer down, sweet thing. What did that crate ever do to you?”

“It got in my way!” Gared growled.

“How did it get in your way?” Pree asked, because he wasn’t willing to pay for the smart crates that walked by themselves.

“I don’t know,” Gared said, swinging his big hands in the air. “It just was! And it made me mad!”

Pree put his hands on his hips and pursed his lips. After a moment, he said, “Does that happen a lot?”

“What?”

“You getting angry at people and things that don’t deserve it,” Pree said. “That.”

Gared sighed gustily and hunched his shoulders. “Yeah.”

“Do you think you can try not to do it again?” Pree asked.

“Maybe?” Gared said. “I mean, I’ll do my best. I know I’ve got issues.”

Pree eyed him. “Tell you what. I’ll give you the name of a therapist on Leith. She does video calls, and she owes me a favor.”

“Okay. I told you that you wouldn’t regret hiring me, and I don’t want to make myself a liar,” Gared said.

Pree’s heart melted a teensy bit. “We wouldn’t want that.”

Pree didn’t ask Gared about therapy, but he did listen when Gared talked about it after his sessions.

“You know about emotional dysregulation?” Gared asked.

“Of course. I haven’t always been the calm, collected, and gorgeous man you see before you today,” Pree said.

Gared looked surprised. “You could’ve fooled me.”

“Well, I’ve always been gorgeous,” Pree allowed, and continued to listen whenever Gared approached him to talk about what he’d learned that day.

Sometimes Gared had homework to do. One day there was a lull in patrons at the bar, so Pree went looking for Gared and found him in one of the larger storage rooms doing a plank. It was doing great things for his arms.

“What the hells are you doing?” Pree asked.

“I’m trying to get used to being uncomfortable,” Gared explained. “It’s my work for the week.”

“I think she meant getting used to uncomfortable emotions and not physical discomfort, pumpkin.”

“You’re probably right, but I’ll do both just in case,” Gared said.

Pree stared at him appraisingly and folded his arms. “Up to you, sweet thing, but you must have gotten used to physical discomfort already building all those sexy muscles.”

Gared’s elbows went loose and his form wobbled badly, and his face flushed red.

Pree grinned at the sight and whistled as he walked away.

Behind him, he could hear Gared muttering, “The dimples are _killing_ me.”

* * *

It was early afternoon and quiet in the Royale, with only a few regulars in the bar. Most of the usual riffraff were still at work, so Pree was taking inventory behind the bar when Gared startled the shit out of him.

“Hey, Pree,” he said from directly behind him.

Gared moved quietly for a man that big. Pree dropped his data pad on the bar and spun around quickly, and Gared caught him in his arms and pulled him close. Gared’s hands were on Pree’s ass, and Pree couldn’t blame him because his ass was magnificent. Pree took the opportunity to feel up his chest a little to appreciate how solid he was, and Gared responded by squeezing his ass and groaning a little.

“You’re so glittery today,” Gared said.

“Hmm. You like it?” Pree asked. He could feel Gared getting hard, and he wasn’t mad about it.

“Yeah,” Gared said with feeling. “A lot. So much.”

“Glad to hear it, sweet thing.”

Gared took in a breath and gave him an imploring look. “Say my name?”

“Gared,” he said with all the command he could muster, which was a lot, given his past adventures. Gared flushed and swayed close, so Pree closed the distance to give him a little kiss.

Well, that was the intention. Gared opened up immediately with a little moan, so Pree reacted by doing what he did best, which was tilting his head and turning the kiss filthy. Gared wasn’t loud, but he was responsive, so Pree took him for a ride with his lips, tongue, and a little bit of teeth. He used more teeth after discovering that Gared’s reaction to biting was a definite yes.

When Pree pulled back, Gared opened his eyes and stared at him like he was a revelation. It wasn’t the first time Pree had put that look on a man’s face, but it was satisfying to see nevertheless.

The door to the bar banged open, and a boisterous group of factory workers came in, grubby and clearly glad to be off shift.

“Time to get back to work,” Pree said.

“Yes, sir,” Gared said, giving his ass one more squeeze before letting go.

Pree waited for Gared to turn around and then slapped his ass, and Gared’s high-pitched response made him take a note for later, because that needed exploring.

One of the factory workers leered at him as he bellied up to the bar. “I’ll have what he’s having.”

“You should be so lucky,” Pree said, and winked at Gared from across the room. Gared fumbled a crate and nearly dropped it on his feet.

“Am I lucky?” he asked.

“Maybe. Maybe not. If you keep putting a smile on this face, we’ll see how it goes,” Pree said.


End file.
